11–17 of 17 posts
I never thought a human could generate useful energy after a science museum exhibit from my childhood made you try to power a 60W filament light bulb with a bike and it was hard to keep it lit.
Or a Youtube video where an olympic bicyclist can barely power a toaster enough to gently singe some toast.
Makes more sense if the human isn’t solely responsible for providing all the energy on demand.
Hi HN, The PedalPC is a computer desk with a built-in, pedal-powered generator. It helps keep you fit by making useful, moderate physical activity an integral part of your workday. It also provides you with a clean, reliable, and dependable off-grid source of electricity that you can set up anywhere. I built it because I wanted some way to get exercise while I worked, but didn't want the energy I expended go to waste…
I'm curious about the effect this has had on your fitness. 60 W output on a bike is pretty low intensity exercise for most people, but 15-20 hours a week is a lot of volume.
Did you have to work up to that? Where did you start and what did the journey to where you are now look like?
Do you have a sense of how this has affected your capacity for higher intensity exercise? (If it helps to have a more concrete idea of what I mean by this, were I designing an experiment I would probably track max power output and power output at VT1 and VT2. But any kind of fitness metric would be interesting, as would be what you think the effect has been, even if it's not based on hard data.)
Hi HN, The PedalPC is a computer desk with a built-in, pedal-powered generator. It helps keep you fit by making useful, moderate physical activity an integral part of your workday. It also provides you with a clean, reliable, and dependable off-grid source of electricity that you can set up anywhere. I built it because I wanted some way to get exercise while I worked, but didn't want the energy I expended go to waste…
Very cool! I'm curious about the effect this has had on your fitness. 60 W output on a bike is pretty low intensity exercise for most people, but 15-20 hours a week is a lot of volume. Did you have to work up to that? Where did you start and what did the journey to where you are now look like? Do you have a sense of how this has affected your capacity for higher intensity exercise? (If it helps to have a more concret…
Keep in mind 60 W of electrical output is ~100 W of human power output, due to generator and rectifier efficiencies. I would call it a moderate workout. I can engage in a normal conversation or video conference call without a problem, but would find it a bit difficult to sing.
Badass. I never thought a human could generate useful energy after a science museum exhibit from my childhood made you try to power a 60W filament light bulb with a bike and it was hard to keep it lit. Or a Youtube video where an olympic bicyclist can barely power a toaster enough to gently singe some toast. Makes more sense if the human isn’t solely responsible for providing all the energy on demand.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Very cool! I'm curious about the effect this has had on your fitness. 60 W output on a bike is pretty low intensity exercise for most people, but 15-20 hours a week is a lot of volume. Did you have to work up to that? Where did you start and what did the journey to where you are now look like? Do you have a sense of how this has affected your capacity for higher intensity exercise? (If it helps to have a more concret…
Prior to building it, I rode a bicycle for a living ( https://www.pedalpc.com/about/ ), so I was in pretty good cardiovascular health to start with. FWIW, my resting heart rate is in the lower 40's. My heart rate is about 70 bpm when I'm generating 60 W of electricity. Keep in mind 60 W of electrical output is ~100 W of human power output, due to generator and rectifier efficiencies. I would call it a moderate workou…
This was the first time I had seen a cycle desk and I find the idea really interesting.
Having done a little more reading on the subject, my sense is that you may have a better handle on the ergonomics than the existing cycle desks on the market. It seems like most people are using cycle desks to do a pretty limited amount and type of work while doing a short workout, whereas you are using it for a long time each day, which I imagine means you can do most types of work comfortably.
If that's true, and it's true for a sizeable number of people, not just you, I think that's what I would focus on.
Are the other people for whom you've built one able to use it as much as you?
Hi HN, The PedalPC is a computer desk with a built-in, pedal-powered generator. It helps keep you fit by making useful, moderate physical activity an integral part of your workday. It also provides you with a clean, reliable, and dependable off-grid source of electricity that you can set up anywhere. I built it because I wanted some way to get exercise while I worked, but didn't want the energy I expended go to waste…
This is a bit of an aside but I'm curious as to why you chose your specific internet traffic routing method for your website vs something like Tailscale, or ngrok, or similar tunnelling solutions.
I think for me it would be especially interesting to have a combination of the generator, battery, control board, power sockets and the single-board computer (everything but the desk frame, essentially) in the form factor of an under-desk bike